Rome Barely Ruled Romania. So Why Do Romanians Still Speak Latin?

Rome ruled Dacia for only about 165 years, and then it pulled out. Yet about 22 million people still grow up speaking a language that comes from Latin. Scholars still can't agree where that Latin survived. This video starts with Trajan's conquest in 106 AD and his settlers "from the whole Roman world." It covers how Hadrian almost gave the province up after barely a decade, and Aurelian's withdrawal around 270, when the name "Dacia" moved south across the Danube. Then come the Goths, Huns, Avars and Bulgars, and centuries when Romanian speakers wrote in Old Church Slavonic, so Romanian itself was barely written down. After that, I look at the Jireček Line and the three main theories of where Romanian took shape: Daco-Roman continuity, Roesler's immigrationist theory and the "both banks" view. Then Neacșu's letter of 1521, the oldest dated text in Romanian, written in Cyrillic. Then re-Latinisation and the move to Latin letters in the mid-19th century. Last come the Aromanians, who still speak an Eastern Romance language south of the Danube. I lay out the debate as it stands without taking a national side. The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages says the evidence isn't adequate to settle it. Chapters 0:00 165 years, and a 1,000-year gap 0:40 The usual answer, and 3 details that don't fit 1:32 Before the legions: Dacia and Moesia 2:05 101–106: Trajan's conquest 2:41 Settlers "from the whole Roman world", and Hadrian's doubts 3:39 A province with edges 4:05 The withdrawal: Dacia moves south 5:18 The storm: Goths, Huns, Avars, Bulgars 6:24 The silent thousand years 7:27 The Jireček Line 8:07 Three answers: where did Latin survive? 9:48 1521: Neacșu's letter 10:56 Back to Latin letters 11:30 The Aromanians: living proof 12:03 The answer Sources "Dacia", Encyclopaedia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/Dacia Eutropius, Breviarium historiae Romanae, Books 8–9 (Latin text): https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/eutropius/... and https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/eutropius/.... English translation by J. S. Watson (1886): https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eutropi... Maiden, Smith & Ledgeway (eds.), The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, Cambridge University Press, 2013 Ledgeway & Maiden (eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages, Oxford University Press, 2016 "Origin of the Romanians", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_th... "Romanian language", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_lan... "Neacșu's letter", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neac%C8%99u%... "Jireček Line", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jire%C4%8Dek... "Romanian alphabet", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_alp... "Aromanians", Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aromanians